Jason Harris

My Self Summary

I didn’t always like beer.

I was a late bloomer into the boozin’ world. I came and went past 21 without touching a drop of the demon alcohol, and it wasn’t until I came out of my shell a bit (and got a helping push from a certain nameless harpy) that I decided to take a sip of Grandpa’s Old Cough Syrup. “Not that bad.” slightly younger me thought. But despite my new found enjoyment of imbibing, like many young folks I was sticking strictly to the sugary sweet concoctions so beloved by my peers.

One day, I decided, let’s give this beer stuff a try. I headed down with my pal to a truly fine beer bar: Buffalo Wild Wings. He had a Wyder’s Pear Cider. Me? I’d seen a lot of TV commercials, and I knew what I was doing: I ordered a Heineken. Tall glass, please, Mr Bartender. 20 minutes later, I left the bar defeated, a 90% full glass of Heineken in my wake.

I cruised along, happy with my Adios’ and hurricanes, until one day I saw a download on my favorite totally not illegal movie site: American Beer. A non descript title, but reading the summary it was 4 guys who went to 30 breweries around the country in 40 days. I decided what the heck, let’s watch. Despite not knowing anything about the beer, it just looked….fun. The brewers they met were funny and interesting. There were lots of weird flavors and colors and bottles and tap handles. It just seemed like a fun place to be, so I decided to give it another shot. I took my roommate to BevMo and we decided to grab a bunch of beers from one country….”Let’s take a trip to Germany!” It was the first of many trips around the world.

I quickly moved into the burgeoning craft beer scene. I fell in love with the different varieties available, and all of the interesting things brewers were doing. I started exploring the beer world more and more, and like many craft beer enthusiasts, I soon gained interest in homebrewing. After lurking on HomeBrewTalk and reading HowToBrew for 6 months without buying anything, I took the plunge. I bought a kit from MoreBeer and promptly learned how silly it was to try to boil a 7.5Gallon kettle on my stove. I also learned to check the seals on my wort chiller to avoid water whips in my kitchen.

I moved to all grain and kegging and I still go into brewing with an attitude of having fun first. I have a very manual labor intensive system, but sometimes it makes some magic and that’s fine for me. Sometimes it goes horribly awry, but they say we learn more from our mistakes than our victories, right? In that case, I’m learning way more than these other guys!

What I’m Doing With My Life

Trying new beer whenever and wherever I can. Traveling on the company dime is a great time to try new things. Also much like Donatello, I “do machines”. By that I mean fix computers, not some weird shit.

I’m really good at

Drinking beer, and I’m okay at making it, too! Also, being hilarious.

The first things people usually notice about me

People usually hear me before they see me. This is doubly true for anyone who listens to me on the podcast. It’s not a video show, folks.